Vote down?

Love the article! I recognize the feeling when I’m hacking around something and it actually physically hurts. However, using the word “craftsman” goes back to Romanticism, which, in the current (at least Dutch) revival of romantic nationalism leaves me with a bit of a bad taste. That might be a personal thing, though.

When you make a list of what something is in your opinion, like a craftsman, you can be sure some people want to add or remove items from it. For me, the thing you’re trying to describe can be summed up in one sentence: the man and the work he produces are one. That’s why hacking around something hurts, your work is an extension of yourself. Like trying to bend your knees backwards.